Neil Malik
What do RFK Jr.’s updated vaccine rules mean for Canadians?
Photo via lev radin, Shutterstock
The Topline
- The United States announced changes to its childhood vaccine schedule, including the removal of several vaccines from its recommendations
- The updated list, issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reduces the number of routine childhood vaccines from 17 to 11
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says these new recommendations help the U.S. catch up with other countries that already take a minimal approach to vaccines. The CDC compared their schedule to 20 other nations, including Canada, the UK, and Australia. Ultimately, Denmark’s recommendations were used as the CDC’s model.
- U.S. President Donald Trump praised the new recommendation, while Canada’s Health Minister Marjorie Michel stated that Canada can no longer rely on the United States as a source of public health guidance
When the U.S. sneezes, Canada gets sick
We Canadians are plenty used to being affected, good and bad, by what happens across the border. Changes to the U.S. vaccination schedule, however, have some Canadian doctors concerned this could be more bad than good.
If fewer Americans are immunized, and those Americans travel to Canada, it could result in the spread of disease north of the border, family doctor and former president of the Ontario Medical Association, Dr. Sohail Gandhi told CTV News. “We’re going to see upticks of these diseases,” he said.
There’s also a worry about what Canadians might think about our own immunization recommendations if they see changes being made south of the border.
The Canadian Public Health Association wrote , “In a context marked by growing polarization and the rapid spread of misinformation, signals that science is being sidelined—particularly in a neighbouring country—can have a disproportionate and lasting impact on public trust.”
American doctors, meanwhile, are also alarmed. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and American Medical Association (AMA) say they’ll continue recommending the vaccines the CDC has now dropped from its recommendations, because there’s been no new science suggesting the old schedule was harmful.
Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the AAP, told the BBC, "The United States is not Denmark, and there is no reason to impose the Danish immunization schedule on America's families. America is a unique country, and Denmark's population, public health infrastructure, and disease-risk differ greatly from our own."
Another consideration: Denmark's annual rate of young children hospitalized from rotavirus is the same rate America saw before it introduced the rotavirus vaccine. As Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center in Philadelphia, points out : “We [the U.S.] weren’t OK with those numbers,” he said. “They [Denmark] should be trying to emulate us, not the other way around.”
At a time when Canada lost its measles-free status, and this year’s severe flu season is at its peak , we have enough going on as it is. Having our closest neighbour make these changes is kind of the last thing we need right now.
Canada calls its own shots
It’s no secret Canada looks at data from the U.S. when considering policy decisions around public health. But the bottom line is we’ve always made our own decisions. Just because the CDC updated its guidelines does not necessarily mean Canada’s about to do the same.
“Changes to vaccine recommendations by the U.S. do not affect evidence-based decision-making about vaccine use in Canada. Childhood vaccination continues to remain one of our most powerful preventive tools to support child health in Canada,” André Gagnon, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), told CTV News in an email.
Michael Garner, who was an epidemiologist at the PHAC between 2006 and 2019, describes how Canada utilizes U.S. data in an interview with The Hill Times.
“We always looked at the American data with caution, knowing that America was different,” Garner said, referring to his past work experience.
“Is it different in novel ways now? One hundred per cent. But it's still the same process where we don't on its face—just because it's from the States—trust it.”
In other words, Garner says the PHAC never leaned too hard on the CDC for its decision-making. He added that while he doesn’t personally like the CDC’s updates, it doesn’t change the fact the PHAC always made its own decisions about what’s best for Canadians.
But what about the argument the CDC’s changes are going to lead to Canadians putting less trust in our own guidelines?
Michel Grignon, a professor and health economist at McMaster University told The Guardian that increased mistrust of vaccinations in Canada is the country’s own doing. He argues that Canada’s social safety nets have eroded, especially following the pandemic, creating a higher level of distrust in government.
“We are the source of our own problem, and our vaccine hesitancy has not much to do with the U.S. It has to do with us,” he said.
Ultimately, it sounds like Canada is calling its own shots when it comes to its vaccine guidelines. As for any plans from the PHAC to make changes to Canada’s schedule to match the U.S., it doesn’t sound like that’s happening anytime soon.
